Tai Noi script

Tai Noi
Lao Buhan
Tai Noi; Lao Buhan
Script type	Abugida
Time period	c. 1500–1930s (survives as the modern Lao script)
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	Lao, Isan, and others
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet [a] Phoenician alphabet [a] Aramaic alphabet [a] Brāhmī Tamil-Brahmi Pallava Khmer Sukhothai Fakkham Tai Noi; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Child systems	Lao
Sister systems	Tai Yo
	[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Last updated March 05, 2024

This article contains Lao text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Lao script.

The Tai Noi (also spelled Thai Noi) or Lao Buhan script is a Brahmic script that has historically been used in Laos and Isan ^[3] since about 1500 CE.^[1] The contemporary Lao script is a direct descendant and has preserved the basic letter shapes.^[4] The script has mostly dropped out of use in the Isan region of Thailand, due to the Thaification policies of the Thai government, that imposed Central Thai culture such as the Thai script throughout the country.^[4]

Names

The Tai Noi script (Northeastern Thai : อักษรไทน้อย/áksɔ̆ːntʰájnɔ̑ːj/, cf. Lao : ອັກສອນໄທນ້ອຍ BGN/PCGN Akson Tai Noy, lit. 'Little Tai alphabet') is also called To Lao (Northeastern Thai : โตลาว/to:láːo/, cf. Lao : ໂຕລາວ, lit. 'Lao letters'), which in contemporary Isan and Lao would be Tua Lao (Northeastern Thai : ตัวลาว/tuːaláːo/ and Lao : ຕົວລາວ, respectively. The script is known in Laos as Lao Buhan (Lao : ລາວບູຮານ/lāːwbūːhǎn/), which means lit. 'ancient Lao'.^[5] In Laos, the script is referred to in academic settings as the Akson Lao Deum (Lao : ອັກສອນລາວເດີມ/áksɔ̆ːnláːod̀ɤːm/, cf. Northeastern Thai : อักษรลาวเดิม RTGS Akson Lao Doem, lit. 'Original Lao script').^[4] The script is also called Tua Wiang, meaning "orthography of the court".^[6]

History

The Tai Noi/Lao script and the Thai script derive from a common ancestral Tai script of what is now northern Thailand which was an adaptation of the Khmer script, rounded by the influence of the Mon script, all of which are descendants of the Pallava script of southern India.^[4] The Fak Kham script represents the prototype for the Tai Noi script, which was developed in Lan Xang. The first true examples of inscriptions in Tai Noi are provided by a stele found in Thakhek, dated to 1497.^[1]

The 16th century would see the establishment of many of the hallmarks of the contemporary Lao language. Scribes abandoned the use of written Khmer or Lao written in the Khmer alphabet, adopting a simplified, cursive form of the script now known in Thailand as Tai Noi.^[2] The spread of Theravada Buddhism spread literacy, as monks served as teachers, teaching reading and writing as well other basic skills to village boys, and the Tai Noi script was the secular script used for personal letters, record-keeping and signage, as well as to record short stories and the klon (Northeastern Thai : กลอน/kɔːn/, cf. Lao : ກອນ BGN/PCGN kon) poetry that were often incorporated into traditional folksongs.^[2] The earliest evidence of the script in what is now Thailand is an inscription at Prathat Si Bunrueang in Nong Bua Lamphu dated to 1510, and the last epigraphic evidence is dated to 1840 AD, although large numbers of texts were destroyed or did not survive the heat and humidity. Temples built in what is now Isan still featured the Tai Noi script on its murals and although Siam would intervene in some matters, daily administration was still left to the remaining kings and various Lao princes that served as governors of the larger mueang.^{[ citation needed ]}

The use of the script was banned in Isan in 1871 by royal decree and supplemented with the Thai alphabet, followed by reforms that imposed Thai as the administrative language of the region in 1898, but these edicts had little impact as education was done informally by village monks. The written language survived to some degree until the imposition of the radical Thaification policies of the 1930s, as the Central Thai culture was elevated as the national standard and all expressions of regional and minority culture were brutally suppressed.^[7] Many documents were confiscated and burned, religious literature was replaced by royally sanctioned Thai versions and schools, where only the Thai spoken and written language was used, were built in the region. As a result, only a handful of people, such as academic experts, monks that maintain the temple libraries and some elderly people of advanced age are familiar with and can read material written in Tai Noi script. This has led to Isan being mainly a spoken language, and when it is written, if at all, it is written in the Thai script and spelling conventions that distance it from its Lao origins.^[4]

In Laos, Tai Noi survives with a few modifications as the Lao script.^[2] The Lao script is a direct descendant of Tai Noi and continues its role as the official written language of the Lao language of the left bank as well as the script used to transcribe minority languages.^[8]^[4] In Isan, increased exposure to Tai Noi has been provided by the Khon Kaen University's Isan language and literature BA courses, as of 2004. In addition, the Mahachulalongkorn University in Khon Kaen has independently developed the "New Thai Noi" script, which includes a 5-tone diacritic system to simplify the script for students wishing to read and write Tai Noi.^[9] In 2012, the Khon Kaen University developed the four-year Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalization Programme (ICMRP), which addresses the development of an Isan language curriculum in order to revitalize the language. The Tai Noi script was selected as the writing system for the project due to its historical use for secular writings, as well as for its widespread use in Isan prior to the introduction of the Thai education system.^[10] The main outcomes of the program were the first officially approved Isan language curriculum for primary and secondary school students, the first municipal multilingual Thai-Isan-English road signage (featuring Tai Noi) in Northeast Thailand, children's tracing books for learning Tai Noi script, a standardized Tai Noi script presented in alphabet posters, flash cards for teaching Tai Noi and a 16,000-word multilingual Thai-Isan-English dictionary employing the Tai Noi script.^[11]

Characteristics

The Tai Noi consonants are written horizontally from left to right, while vowels are written in front, on top, at the bottom, and after the letter, depending on the vowel. The script does not have capital or lowercase letters. There are no spaces between words. Sentences are ended with a space.

The Tai Noi script has its own numbers, which are similar to numbers found in the Lao script.

Consonants

The Tai Noi script contains 27 initial consonants.

Consonant clusters

Consonant clusters are initial consonants that consist of two consonant letters combined into one letter.^[12]

The following picture illustrates some examples:

Final consonants

The Tai Noi script contains letters specifically for consonants in the final position of a word. There are 11 final consonant letters in total for 8 different sounds.

Vowels

The Tai Noi script contains 29 vowels formed by numerous diacritics.

Unicode

Attempts to encode Tai Noi in Unicode have been made.^[5]

Fonts

You can download a Tai Noi font at the IsanGate website.^[13]

Related Research Articles

Thai, or Central Thai, is a Tai language of the Kra–Dai language family spoken by the Central Thai people, Mon in Central Thailand and the vast majority of Thai Chinese enclaves throughout the country. It is the sole official language of Thailand.

The Thai script is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself has 44 consonant symbols and 16 vowel symbols that combine into at least 32 vowel forms and four tone diacritics to create characters mostly representing syllables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lao language</span> Kra–Dai language of Southeast Asia

Lao, sometimes referred to as Laotian, is the official language of Laos and a significant language in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand. Spoken by over 7 million people in Laos and 23 million in Thailand, it serves as a vital link in the cultural and social fabric of these areas. It is written in the Lao script, an abugida that evolved from ancient Tai scripts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lao people</span> Ethnic group

The Lao people are a Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia, who speak the Lao language of the Kra–Dai languages. They are the majority ethnic group of Laos, making up 53.2% of the total population. The majority of Lao people adhere to Theravada Buddhism. They are closely related to other Tai people, especially with the Isan people, who are also speakers of Lao language, native to neighboring Thailand.

Northeast Thailand or Isan consists of 20 provinces in northeastern Thailand. Isan is Thailand's largest region, on the Khorat Plateau, bordered by the Mekong River to the north and east, by Cambodia to the southeast and the Sankamphaeng Range south of Nakhon Ratchasima. To the west it is separated from northern and central Thailand by the Phetchabun Mountains. Isan covers 167,718 km² (64,756 sq mi), making it about half the size of Germany and roughly the size of England and Wales. The total forest area is 25,203 km² (9,731 sq mi) or 15 percent of Isan's area.

Kam Mueang or Northern Thailanguage is the language of the Northern Thai people of Lanna, Thailand. It is a Southwestern Tai language that is closely related to Tai Lue language. Kam Mueang has approximately six million speakers, most of whom live in the native Northern Thailand, with a smaller community of Lanna speakers in northwestern Laos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mor lam</span> Lao and Thai music genre

Mor lam is a traditional Lao form of song in Laos and Isan. Mor lam means 'expert song', or 'expert singer', referring to the music or artist respectively. Other romanisations used include mor lum, maw lam, maw lum, moh lam, mhor lum, and molum. In Laos, the music is known simply as lam (ລຳ); mor lam (ໝໍລຳ) refers to the singer.

Isan or Northeastern Thai refers to the local development of the Lao language in Thailand, after the political split of the Lao-speaking world at the Mekong River at the conclusion of the Franco-Siamese crisis of 1893. The language is still referred to as Lao by native speakers.

The history of Isan has been determined by its geography, situated as it is on the Korat Plateau between Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

Lao script or Akson Lao is the primary script used to write the Lao language and other minority languages in Laos. Its earlier form, the Tai Noi script, was also used to write the Isan language, but was replaced by the Thai script. It has 27 consonants, 7 consonantal ligatures, 33 vowels, and 4 tone marks.

Tai Lue or Xishuangbanna Dai is a Tai language of the Lu people, spoken by about 700,000 people in Southeast Asia. This includes 280,000 people in China (Yunnan), 200,000 in Burma, 134,000 in Laos, 83,000 in Thailand and 4,960 in Vietnam. The language is similar to other Tai languages and is closely related to Kham Mueang or Tai Yuan, which is also known as Northern Thai language. In Yunnan, it is spoken in all of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, as well as Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County in Pu'er City.

Tai Dam, also known as Black Tai, is a Tai language spoken by the Tai Dam in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and China.

The Lao Nyaw, Thai Nyaw or Tai Yo are an ethnic group of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, scattered throughout the provinces of Isan such as Nong Khai, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, and parts of Bolikhamxai and Khammouan provinces of Laos. They are also referred to as simply Nyaw or Yaw, depending on either the Lao, Isan, and Nyaw pronunciation, which all pronounce the initial consonant as, or the Thai pronunciation, which pronounces the initial consonant as.

Tai Tham script is an abugida writing system used mainly for a group of Southwestern Tai languages i.e., Northern Thai, Tai Lü, Khün and Lao; as well as the liturgical languages of Buddhism i.e., Pali and Sanskrit. It is historically known as Tua Tham. In Thailand and Myanmar, the script is often referred to as Lanna script in relation to the historical kingdom of Lan Na situating in the Northern region of modern day Thailand and a part of Shan state in Myanmar. Local people in Northern Thailand also call the script as Tua Mueang in parallel to Kam Mueang, a local name for Northern Thai language. In Laos and Isan region of Thailand, a variation of Tai Tham script, often dubbed Lao Tham, is also known by the locals as To Tham Lao or Yuan script. Tai Tham script is traditionally written on a dried palm leaf as a palm-leaf manuscript.

The Isan people or literally Northeastern people are an ethnic group native to Northeastern Thailand with an estimated population of about 22 million. Alternative terms for this group are T(h)ai Isan, Thai-Lao, Lao Isan, or Isan Lao. Like Central Thai (Siamese) and Lao, they belong to the linguistic family of Tai peoples.

Sang Sinxay is a Lao epic poem written by Pang Kham. It tells the story of the hero Sinxay (ສິນໄຊ) who goes on a quest to rescue his aunt Soumountha (ສູມຸນທາ) who was abducted by the demon Nyak Koumphan (ຍັກກູມພັນ). The poem is believed to have been written sometime between the mid-16th and the end of the 17th century in the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. Sang Sinxay is considered one of the three masterpieces of Lao literature. The poem is popular in Laos and in the Isan region of Thailand, where its scenes are also depicted on numerous temples.

The Sukhothai script, also known as the proto-Thai script and Ram Khamhaeng alphabet, is a Brahmic script which originated in the Sukhothai Kingdom. The script is found on the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription and the Lö Thai inscription.

The Khom script is a Brahmic script and a variant of the Khmer script used in Thailand and Laos, which is used to write Pali, Sanskrit, Khmer and Thai.

Lao is a Tai language spoken by 7 million people in Laos and 23 million people in northeast Thailand. After the conclusion of the Franco-Siamese conflict of 1893, the Lao-speaking world was politically split at the Mekong River, with the left bank eventually becoming modern Laos and the right bank the Isan region of Thailand. Isan refers to the local development of the Lao language in Thailand, as it diverged in isolation from Laos. The Isan language is still referred to as Lao by native speakers.

Lao and Thai are two closely related languages of the Southwestern branch of Tai languages. Lao falls within the Lao-Phuthai group of Southwestern Tai languages and Thai within the Chiang Saen language group. Lao and Thai, although they occupy separate groups, are mutually intelligible and were pushed closer through contact and Khmer influence, but all Southwestern Tai languages are mutually intelligible to some degree. Isan refers to the local development of the Lao language in Thailand, as it diverged in isolation from Laos, under Thai influence. The Isan language is still referred to as Lao by native speakers. Spoken Lao is mutually intelligible with Thai and Isan to such a degree that their speakers are able to effectively communicate with one another speaking their respective languages. These languages are written with slightly different scripts, the Lao script and Thai script, but are linguistically similar and effectively form a dialect continuum.

References

1 2 3 4 Lorrillard, Michel (2005). "The Diffusion of Lao Scripts". The Literary Heritage of Laos: Preservation, Dissemination, Research Perspectives (Collected Papers in Lao, Thai and English from the International Conference in Vientiane, 8–10 January 2004). Vientiane: The National Library of Laos. pp. 366–372.
1 2 3 4 Phra Ariyuwat (1996). Phya Khankhaak, the Toad King: A Translation of an Isan Fertility Myth in Verse. Translated by Wajuppa Tossa. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press. pp. 27–34.
↑ Tsumura, Fumihiko (2009). "Magical Use of Traditional Scripts in Northeastern Thai Villages". Senri Ethnological Studies. 74: 63–77. doi: 10.15021/00002577 .
1 2 3 4 5 6 Ronnakiat, Nantana (1992). "Evidence of the Tai Noi Alphabet Found in Inscriptions" (PDF). The Third International Symposium on Language and Linguistics. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University. pp. 1326–1334.
1 2 Mitchell, Ben (2018). "Towards a Comprehensive Proposal for Thai Noi/lao Buhan Script" (PDF)– via Unicode.org.
↑ Keyes, Charles (2003). "The Politics of Language in Thailand and Laos". In Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia, ed. By Michael e. Brown and Šumit Ganguly. Cambridge, Ma: The mit Press, Pp. 177-210. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
↑ Draper, John (2013). "Introducing Multilingual Thai – Isan – English Signage in a Thai University" (PDF). Journal of Lao Studies. 4 (1): 11–42.
↑ "The Constitution of the Lao People's Democratic Republic". Archived from the original on 2011-08-06 – via un.int.
↑ Draper, John (2004). "Isan: The Planning Context for Language Maintenance and Revitalization". Second Language Learning & Teaching. 4.
↑ Draper, John (2015). "Towards a Curriculum for the Thai Lao of Northeast Thailand?". Current Issues in Language Planning. 16 (3): 238–258. doi:10.1080/14664208.2015.1023420. S2CID 145264735.
↑ Draper, John; Mitchell, James (2017). "Report on the Completion of the Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalization Programme". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 32 (1): 200–220. doi:10.1355/sj32-1n. JSTOR 44668412.
↑ "First Revised Proposal Transliteration of Akson-Tham-Isan and Akson-Thai-Noi" (PDF)– via eki.ee.
↑ "อักษรไทยน้อย - IsanGate : ประตูสู่อีสานบ้านเฮา".

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[Lorrillard2005-1] 1 2 3 4 Lorrillard, Michel (2005). "The Diffusion of Lao Scripts". The Literary Heritage of Laos: Preservation, Dissemination, Research Perspectives (Collected Papers in Lao, Thai and English from the International Conference in Vientiane, 8–10 January 2004). Vientiane: The National Library of Laos. pp. 366–372.

[Toad-2] 1 2 3 4 Phra Ariyuwat (1996). Phya Khankhaak, the Toad King: A Translation of an Isan Fertility Myth in Verse. Translated by Wajuppa Tossa. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press. pp. 27–34.

[3] Tsumura, Fumihiko (2009). "Magical Use of Traditional Scripts in Northeastern Thai Villages". Senri Ethnological Studies. 74: 63–77. doi: 10.15021/00002577 .

[ronn-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ronnakiat, Nantana (1992). "Evidence of the Tai Noi Alphabet Found in Inscriptions" (PDF). The Third International Symposium on Language and Linguistics. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University. pp. 1326–1334.

[Unicode-5] 1 2 Mitchell, Ben (2018). "Towards a Comprehensive Proposal for Thai Noi/lao Buhan Script" (PDF)– via Unicode.org.

[6] Keyes, Charles (2003). "The Politics of Language in Thailand and Laos". In Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia, ed. By Michael e. Brown and Šumit Ganguly. Cambridge, Ma: The mit Press, Pp. 177-210. Retrieved 19 April 2022.

[Signs-7] Draper, John (2013). "Introducing Multilingual Thai – Isan – English Signage in a Thai University" (PDF). Journal of Lao Studies. 4 (1): 11–42.

[LaoLaw-8] "The Constitution of the Lao People's Democratic Republic". Archived from the original on 2011-08-06 – via un.int.

[9] Draper, John (2004). "Isan: The Planning Context for Language Maintenance and Revitalization". Second Language Learning & Teaching. 4.

[10] Draper, John (2015). "Towards a Curriculum for the Thai Lao of Northeast Thailand?". Current Issues in Language Planning. 16 (3): 238–258. doi:10.1080/14664208.2015.1023420. S2CID 145264735.

[11] Draper, John; Mitchell, James (2017). "Report on the Completion of the Isan Culture Maintenance and Revitalization Programme". Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia. 32 (1): 200–220. doi:10.1355/sj32-1n. JSTOR 44668412.

[12] "First Revised Proposal Transliteration of Akson-Tham-Isan and Akson-Thai-Noi" (PDF)– via eki.ee.

[13] "อักษรไทยน้อย - IsanGate : ประตูสู่อีสานบ้านเฮา".

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